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The Chronoliths
The Chronoliths
Author: Robert Charles Wilson
Scott Warden is a man haunted by the past-and soon to be haunted by the future. — In early twenty-first-century Thailand, Scott is an expatriate slacker. Then, one day, he inadvertently witnesses an impossible event: the violent appearance of a 200-foot stone pillar in the forested interior. Its arrival collapses trees for a quarter mile around i...  more »
ISBN-13: 9780312873844
ISBN-10: 0312873840
Publication Date: 2001
Pages: 301
Rating:
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
 12

3.5 stars, based on 12 ratings
Publisher: Tor Books
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback, Audio CD
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed The Chronoliths on + 19 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
I found this book to be a welcome relief from the common break-neck paced SF novel. The concepts seem simple on the surface; giant artifacts from the future are appear all over the world. The artifacts are man-made and mark the coming conquest of the world.

The events and characters have depth and complexity. Yet there is a subtly and grace to the writing style that brought the story more alive than most SF novels I've read.

Highly recommended!
Hophead avatar reviewed The Chronoliths on + 285 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
A novel of time and time changes, as a series near-future events impact the past. Causality is explored and the idea of "fate as inevitable" gets stretched in an interesting way. Recommended.
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reviewed The Chronoliths on + 177 more book reviews
A very well crafted tale of time travel that avoids paradox. "Time travel only appears to be a paradox when viewed through a three-dimensional window."

The "science" is given to the reader through a character who doesn't really understand it, which is usually a pet peeve of mind since it gives the author an out as far as really thinking it through and making it make sense. Not so with this book--quotes from the scientist who DOES understand it gives you just enough information to make you stop reading, look up, and give it some intense thought. This is what I like about science fiction, and this book does it well.

While there is a great deal of violence in the story line, most of it is handled peripherally so the reader is not exposed to a lot of gratuitous action and gore.

This is my first exposure to this author and I will definitely seek him out again.
westsunset avatar reviewed The Chronoliths on + 11 more book reviews
I read Spin and Axis and really enjoyed them so I thought i'd try another work by Wilson. I wasn't disappointed. I really enjoyed this read. A very intelligent book that is at the same time character driven.
reviewed The Chronoliths on + 4 more book reviews
I had been wanting to read this book for a while, so I eagerly tore into it when it arrived. Unfortunately, it was not a very satisfying read. The main character was hard to relate to and the milieu of the collapsing economy not well drawn out. Further, the overall mystery (where are the chronoliths coming from and how do we stop them!) was not solved with any satisfaction. The book would have been more interesting if it had shifted view points throughout rather than sticking with the main character who just seemed to stumble blindly through life (although perhaps that was part of the point the author was trying to make). In short-- the concept for the book was interesting, just not well executed.
althea avatar reviewed The Chronoliths on + 774 more book reviews
A software engineer, Scott, is 'on break' in rural Thailand when he and his drug-dealing buddy Hitch happen to be in the right place at the right (wrong?) time to be some of the first people to view the first of the Chronoliths - giant obelisks that appear out of nowhere, announcing the military victory of the enigmatic Kuin - dated to happen twenty years and three months in the future. And Thailand is only the first - soon more and more appear, causing widespread death and destruction, and causing not just awe but cults, secret societies, frantic military readying and scientific investigation.
The book has interesting thoughts on the physics of time, the social effects of monuments (and self-fulfilling prophecies).
However, although the writing in this book is noticeably more masterful than in the earlier book I read by Wilson, the 'feel' of its style, I thought, was still very 'mainstream-thriller.'
bibliocat avatar reviewed The Chronoliths on + 76 more book reviews
facsinating read


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